The Many Faces of Bryce

Bryce was very busy last week.

This is Bryce the Orator. So it's Thursday (the week before last), and Bryce mentions, casually, that he has a speech tomorrow. Me (with surprise): "Oh?" So he slaps some notes on a few cards and gives me his schpeel. It's rough. The data is thin. I say, "Dude, it's a little weak." He sheepishly agrees. But, hey, he's in 6th grade, he's getting all A's, and it's not like he's gonna flunk out. AND, did I mention, his speech is the next day? OK, well, he works on it but we agree there's not enough time for a total re-write. (I think I have senior-itis too)

Well, guess what. He comes home the next day with a 40 out of...40! Really? Who's grading these things? AND, he has earned one of the two spots from his class in the school wide competition to occur the following Tuesday (now, last Tuesday). Now, his teacher (who I think is AWESOME) did say he got in on the strength of his presentation and he'd need to beef up the content for the competition. His dad's DNA is paying off in a big way! Incidentally, his topic was solar power (another nod to the pop) and my favorite line was:

"So, be the first to save some green, and I don’t just mean money!"

He did great with his new and improved speech (although some of those nasty facts did get in the way of his natural spontaneity with the crowd). However, he got beat out by a 5th grader who seriously scared me out of ever drinking bottled water again!

While this was going on, he also was an MC for the talent show two days later:

He was practicing at least 2 hours 2-3 times a week for this gig! I guess all those lessons in sarcasm are really paying off because many people remarked on how funny he was. He really was quite the showman.

This is Bryce the Phantom. (great costume, don't you think? OK, I missed that picture, but he looked REALLY similar!)

This is Bryce as Frenchy from Grease. In another scene he played a Valley Girl (OMGosh! I'm glad the brothers didn't see those!)

This is the entire MC group...

But this one's my favorite!